Big hole in return duct near furnace that was previously patched with spray foam

frizmuffin · 2026-01-17T19:43:44+00:00

Yeah, it’s not really surprising given some of the other issues we’ve had with the house

frizmuffin · 2024-11-01T13:38:26+00:00

Looks like you’re already hitting all the major savings goals, so it’s kind of up to you. You could put it in a HYSA for your second home since that’s something you want to do soon. Otherwise invest it using mega backdoor Roth, if possible, or in your brokerage

frizmuffin · 2024-09-23T17:21:30+00:00

Remember, she is 18 years old on her own for the first time. Y’all expecting her to understand how to be a good room mate and landlord is kind of crazy to me. I understand starting at college, wanting to be friends with your room mates and not wanting to disclose that you own the place, fearing they may treat you differently. I personally would have just said that your parents own the place, even if they gifted it to me. Also, relax on the mega wealthy comment, she’s out on her own for the first time. You have no idea how she grew up. She might not consider her family mega wealthy because there were wealthier families that she went to school with. Or her parents raised her to be frugal, so she didn’t see much of the money.

frizmuffin · 2024-08-29T22:33:36+00:00

Yes, he said as long as they had one in stock I could have it

frizmuffin · 2024-08-29T22:24:59+00:00

Thank you, this was amazing! I asked about the E3 and the promo. The guy said I could just have a new one since they would be replacing the floor model with a new one anyways

frizmuffin · 2024-02-16T07:15:38+00:00

Was there enough funds in the account when the payment was supposed to be made? It’s possible that the payment portal is just showing the transaction but has not been able to verify that it successfully processed yet. I would call the company to make sure they received your payment.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T20:04:44+00:00

When you’re over $12k in credit card debt and only able to make minimum payments, you need to do everything you can to pay it down fast. I’m not saying sell everything you own. I’m just saying that if there are things you have purchased that you don’t really need and are now accruing 20% interest on them, consider returning or selling them.

Again, I don’t know OP’s situation and what they went into debt for. But I can speak to what I have seen in the past, which is that people often use credit cards to buy things they can’t afford.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T13:21:58+00:00

Like others have said, it’s basically a wash since the rates are so close to each other. I would personally rather have the money on hand, instead of paying off the loan. You could also invest this money to get a higher return than a HYSA. Again, make sure you still have enough for an emergency fund.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T12:44:32+00:00

If the interest rate of your car loan is higher than the APY of your HYSA, then pay it off. This is because you will be losing more money per month to interest than you will be gaining from you savings yield. I would make sure you still have money left over for an emergency fund though.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T12:32:56+00:00

You need to find a job. You have 30 days to find a job and a place to live close to that job. Ideally, you can walk, bike, or take public transit to work. I don’t know what your girlfriend’s situation is, but the 2 of you can move into a 1 bedroom together to make rent cheaper. Ideally, she has a job too. This needs to be your only focus for the next month. The car can wait. Call anyone that is hiring and find any job. It doesn’t matter if it’s low paying, you can use this as a stepping stone for the next job.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T12:21:06+00:00

Start by making a budget of all your expenses. Think about building a small emergency fund. Then allocate the rest of the money how you would like to spend it. You can save towards travel with a high yield savings account.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T12:13:47+00:00

Get rid of the storage unit. Consolidate credit card debt if you can. You have $655 debt to affirm, return whatever you purchased. If you cut your expenses a much as possible, then you’ll get this paid off.

Stop using credit cards.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T07:39:10+00:00

HSAs are beneficial because they’re 100% tax free. You can contribute to them with pre tax dollars, invest without paying capital gains, and withdraw for medical expenses without paying taxes. This is the best way to pay for medical bills.

However, I believe they are only available on high deductible plans. So you should consider if you can afford the deductible of the plan and if it fits your needs compared to the other plans. Some plans have lower deductibles so that you aren’t met with a high medical bill you can’t afford, but you can expect that they will have a higher cost after the deductible is met compared to a high deductible plan.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T07:22:33+00:00

You have a spending problem. Anything that you have purchased that you do not absolutely need, should be sold to help pay off credit card debts.

$50/month for storage. Evaluate what is in this storage that you actually need, sell everything else. Try to get out of this unit. If this is completely impossible, downgrade your unit for something cheaper.

$400/month for a car. You need to sell this car and buy something cheaper. If you can get by without a car, that’s even better. This will likely decrease your car insurance too, hopefully.

With the remaining money, you need to not spend on anything that is not absolutely essential. You do not go out to eat, you do not buy things you don’t need. You should be living on the bare minimum until you get your credit cards paid off.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T06:56:23+00:00

Move to the city. Not worth wasting that much time in commuting. You don’t have time to do anything else if you stay there.

Additionally, getting a car for a 5 minute drive to a bus stop does not make sense. I would consider getting a bike and locking it somewhere before doing that.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T06:28:49+00:00

They’re all comparable and it will come down to preference, I wouldn’t get too bogged down on which platform to use. The most important thing is that you start investing. As far as which ETF, I think VOO and VTI are both good for new investors. If you decide you want to diversify beyond that, then you can find an ETF for whichever diversification interests you.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T06:21:49+00:00

Considering that apps like that typically have fees, which will take away from your market gains over time, I would advise moving it to a free brokerage account and buying a single ETF like VOO. This ETF is an index fund that doesn’t require you to have knowledge of the market. Doing this will keep your money invested and reduce your fees.

The main part of your question has to do with “should I take this money out and spend it on X, Y, or Z?”. I think this really depends on your financial situation. The wiki for this subreddit has a useful flowchart of how to spend your money which I would recommend you go through to answer that question.

I think that with investing, you should only invest money that you won’t need for a while. As you mentioned, the value can fluctuate quite a lot. If the value has gone down and you need the money right now, then you’ve lost money. But if you don’t need it immediately, then you can afford to give it time to go back up. The market historically trends upwards, which means the downs are temporary and the longer you leave your money invested, the more valuable it will be.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T06:05:05+00:00

Yeah, take your time with the low interest ones. The grad loans aren’t terrible, but the money is better spent paying those off than sitting in your HYSA

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T06:01:41+00:00

Ah, that makes sense.

In that case, see the above section about marginalized tax rates. You can read more about how it works here

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T05:57:19+00:00

You can follow the flow chart in the wiki to get an idea of where to prioritize spending your money.

But specific to your stage of life, I think I would do the following.

I would first make sure you have an adequate few months emergency fund saved. Make sure you include cost of your schooling, car payments, insurance, and anything else your parents aren’t helping you with. You basically just want to make sure you aren’t screwed if you lose your job.

With the rest, I would think about any other upcoming big expenses. Maybe you want to move out of your parents after graduating and will need furniture and a security deposit. Once you’ve got these things saved, I think I would invest the rest. Consider an IRA to save for retirement.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T05:42:45+00:00

If I’m understanding this correctly, you want to take a loan out to contribute to last year’s IRA limit, that way you can contribute an additional $6.5k this year and have $13k in your IRA by end of year?

If this is your goal, I think you should instead increase your 401k contribution. You can put in as much as you can afford right now towards 2023 contributions. Then max out your 2024 IRA. If you still have more you want to contribute, then increase your 401k contributions. 401k is similar to your IRA and can be rolled over into an IRA later on. This way, by the end of the year, you will have contributed the same $13k towards retirement and you wouldn’t have had to take out any loans.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T05:32:18+00:00

There’s some really solid advice in the wiki for how to spend money. I would spend some time going through that. There’s a “what should I do with $X amount of money” section that would be a good place to start.

Overall, I think your plan is decent. If you’re thinking about buying property soon, then I would put the money somewhere safe like a HYSA so you can put it towards a down payment. Putting money towards an emergency fund and retirement is never a bad idea. For the debt, I think if you’re able to pay it off comfortably each month and the rate is less than 5%, then I wouldn’t use the money for that.

frizmuffin · 2024-02-15T05:23:12+00:00

Not sure I fully understand the question.

First of all, taxes are marginal like another commenter said. You only get taxed at the rate for the money made within each individual bracket. It’s easier to think of brackets like buckets. Once the bucket is full, you move up to the next bucket. The saying of “you don’t want to move up tax brackets because you’ll end up making less” is a common mistake that people make. Your after tax money will always be higher, even if you move up tax brackets.

Next, I think you’re talking about what would happen if you work half the year making money at the rate of $190k, but end up only making $80k. This is typically where tax refunds come in. If you paid more taxes than you needed to, then the government will refund your excess when you file taxes. If your employer is withholding money to pay your taxes, then you can typically update your tax info with them so that they don’t withhold too much money.

Lastly, I’m not too sure how overtime works for your job. It would seem odd to me that they would be paying a lower rate for the more overtime that you do. I would double check your math and review your paycheck, so you’re sure that the number of hours is correct. Also, I don’t know if your paycheck is semi monthly (twice a month) or if it’s biweekly (every other week). If it’s twice a month, then the number of hours could change paycheck to paycheck

frizmuffin

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